State officials say they've hit on a way to save $60 million over the next five years by reducing the pay of a legion of temporary workers who supplement the state workforce.

Under a series of new contracts arranged by the Office of General Services, temp service employees will see their wages fall as much as 42 percent.

The savings should reach $12 million a year, said OGS spokeswoman Heather Groll, on a range of employees, many of them on long-term assignments. The temps are technical and management personnel; clerks; agricultural and service workers; building construction tradesmen; translators; and interpreters. They are asbestos removers, who might work on a specific project. Or they are highly skilled doctors and nurses needed for key assignments. Others are hearing transcriptionists, call center staff or food preparation workers. Many are working side by side with state employees every day for months or even years.

Groll said the new contracts, awarded to 38 companies, should result in a 30 percent cut in temp service costs to agencies compared with the previous deals, which recently expired. She added that 37 percent of the contracts were awarded to minority- or women-owned enterprises.

Rates are falling across the board based on the winning bidders' pay structures. For instance: An over-the-phone language interpreter will receive 75 cents per minute, compared with the old rate of 90 cents to $1.12.

A legal secretary in the Capital Region will get an hourly rate of $12.48, compared with as much as $22.07. Hearing reporters in New York City will be paid $3.25 per page, compared with the old rate of $4.83. A registered nurse in the Capital Region will get an hourly rate of $36.67, compared with the former pay of up to $63.20.

"They don't take into consideration where these agencies are, or (workers') reputations or their credentials," said Maisie Hillenbrandt, area director of Nursefinders. The firm has supplied nurses to the state for a decade, but no longer after the lowest bidder won. She said the nurses she has been sending to state agencies, already trained and familiar with the work, won't take the lower wages and won't sign on with the winning contractors. She said the rate charged for temps isn't the rate the workers pocket, as the contractor keeps a substantial percentage. Giving temp services to the lowest bidders, Hillenbrandt said, may give state employers cheap labor, but they may be poorly prepared workers. "I don't think they're realizing the repercussions yet."

Other mainstays, like Kelly Services, are also now on the sidelines. Winning bidders include return company New Wave People Inc., a woman-owned firm in Princeton, N.J., whose owner would not discuss her business.

Groll could not provide an estimate on the number of temps in the state force. The Civil Service Employees Association estimates the number is in the thousands, given that $62 million was spent on them from April 2008 to March 2010. "New York state has long abused the use of temporary workers to undercut both full-time state workers and the temps," said CSEA spokesman Stephen Madarasz. "The state is now just continuing that abuse but paying the workers even less." He noted that some temps shore up depleted staffs.

The strategy masks the size of the state payroll and allows expansion during hiring freezes, the union argues.